rdl wrote:What is really the difference between these?
The State Water Resources Control Board delegates (or "Controls") who gets the State's water. The Department of Water Resources manages the state-owned infrastructure. I think of it like this to help me remember: SWRCB "Controls" the water , and DWR manages that "Resource".
Here is a quote from Wikipedia:
"The State Water Board oversees the allocation of the state’s water resources to various entities and for diverse uses, from agricultural irrigation to hydro electrical power generation to municipal water supplies, and for safeguarding the cleanliness and purity of Californians’ water for everything from bubble baths to trout streams to ocean beaches.
The State Water Board is separate from and has different responsibilities than the Department of Water Resources (DWR), which manages state-owned water infrastructure, such as dams, reservoirs and aqueduct. DWR, like any other water user, must apply for water rights permits from the State Water Board."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_State_Water_Resources_Control_Board